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There is a website for the North Carolina Zoo and we had a grandparents pass one year that listed other places across the country that honored the pass. In our case it was useless because we didn't even go back to the zoo that year, but I don't regret paying the extra because the zoo is a good cause.

My kids LOVE Discovery Place and I can't get them out of there without a meltdown! They are 2 & 4. The older kids I saw there were having just as much fun if not more depending upon the activity they were doing.

We get a pass for the Hickory -Catawba Science Center. It allows us to get into all of the participating science centers around the country and some in Canada. We have used it several places in our travels. We come to Discovery Place a few times a year and get in for free. We also used it for the WNC Nature Center in Asheville.

From what I've heard from friends, if you join here: Friends of WNC Nature Center &mdash; Western North Carolina Nature Center (http://www.wildwnc.org/friends - broken link) you can get in at all of the places you mentioned, plus many more around the country. Most science centers/zoos/aquariums have reciprocal membership, so you may just want to dig around to find the best price. I have a friend who paid $65 for her family of five when she bought a yearly WNC pass, but I don't know if it's always that inexpensive.

From what I've heard from friends, if you join here: Friends of WNC Nature Center &mdash; Western North Carolina Nature Center (http://www.wildwnc.org/friends - broken link) you can get in at all of the places you mentioned, plus many more around the country. Most science centers/zoos/aquariums have reciprocal membership, so you may just want to dig around to find the best price. I have a friend who paid $65 for her family of five when she bought a yearly WNC pass, but I don't know if it's always that inexpensive.

We had this pass a couple of years ago and it was great, you can get into the NC and SC zoos, Scheile, Discovery place among many others (there was a kids museum in Winston-Salem we it while at the hospital there for an appt even)

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